March 7, 2013-How many dishes can you prepare without using onions? Not many. Onions are largely used as an ingredient in various cuisines. It would be interesting to know that onions come in different colours like red, yellow, white, and green, which have their own unique taste and flavour.
Some of the onions also range from strong to mildly sweet. Onions can be eaten raw, cooked, fried, dried or roasted. Onions are known as highly valued herbs which contains culinary and medicinal values. Few of their beneficial properties are used from time immemorial. Sweet onions are also have some health benefits and they are known to prevent diseases related to heart, they are also known to prevent cancer and other infections.
Apart from the regular onions, sweet onions are much in demand now. As the name suggests, sweet onions taste sweet and as opposed to the spicy flavour that the other onions give. Sweet onions also have health benefits that equals to the other onions, at the same time the sweet onions are also known to be fresh.
However, sweet onions are not found throughout the year as their growing season occurs during the winter and harvest usually in summer. Sweet onions, the summer food have thinner, lighter-coloured skin and a higher water content, which makes them milder and more perishable.
Sweet onions are also mild in their taste and unlike regular onions which have high levels of sulfur compounds. Sweet onions are usually considered to be fresh onions as the water content dilutes the effect of the sulfur and increases mildness. We give you few health benefits of sweet onions: Good for heart Sweet onions contains flavonoids, which is known to be good for the heart, and also promotes heart health and reduce the risk of heart diseases.
Improves digestion Sweet onions encourages the growth of good bacteria also called as prebiotics, in the digestive system. These good bacteria helps in improving proper digestive function. Makes the bones strong Sweet onions contain a substance called ‘chondrocytes’ (connective tissue cell), which is beneficial for keeping the bones healthy.
Consuming sweet onions on a regular basis promotes bone health by preventing bone related diseases, namely osteoporosis. Anti-inflammatory benefits The high content of Vitamin C found in sweet onions helps in promoting a healthy immune system. These sweet onions also contains anti-inflammatory agents, which reduce the effect of inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis.
One of the basic fact we need to understand about sweet onions is, they differ from regular onions in two major factors such as high sugar content and low level of sulfur compounds. Sweet onions have nearly 6 percent high level of sugar content and have fewer sulfur compounds, which are responsible for the spicy flavour of regular onions. Hence relish sweet onions by making few recipes out of them which are not only tasty but is also known for their health benefits.
